Genus RHYNCOPS

Genus RHYNCOPS.

Rhyncops Linn., Syst. Nat., 10th ed., i, p. 138 (1758).

Type by mon., Rhyncops nigra Linn.

In Rhyncops the culmen is curved; the lower mandible is so much compressed that it looks like a thin flexible knife with a truncated end and with minute oblique ridges on the sides; the nostrils are long and are placed in an irregular hollow close to the commissure at the base; the wings are very long, with the first quill longest; the tail is short and slightly forked; the tarsus is longer than the middle toe and claw, the feet small and the webs with concave edges between the toes.

The genus is represented in America, Africa and India.